Promising Practices
The Promising Practices database informs professionals and community members about documented approaches to improving community health and quality of life.
The ultimate goal is to support the systematic adoption, implementation, and evaluation of successful programs, practices, and policy changes. The database provides carefully reviewed, documented, and ranked practices that range from good ideas to evidence-based practices.
Learn more about the ranking methodology.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Children, Adults
Goal: The goal of this program is to reduce public and worker exposure to secondhand smoke and to prevent youth initiation of tobacco.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Children's Health, Families
Goal: The objectives of the campaign are (1) to educate parents about the importance of talking with their children and (2) to model techniques parents can use to have rich and elaborate conversations with their children.
Filed under Good Idea, Art & Recreation / Libraries & Museums, Families
Goal: This program aims to educate library staff and train workers how to best serve library patrons with autism and their families.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Adults
Goal: The goal of Live Healthy Iowa is to encourage physical activity and weight loss through team-based competition.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Women, Men
Goal: Eliminate or reduce sexual transmission risk behavior and to improve coping with the combined stressors of HIV infection and child sexual abuse.
Impact: LIFT intervention participants reported significantly fewer counts of unprotected vaginal and anal intercourse with all partners (p < .001) and with HIV-negative or unknown serostatus partners (p < .001), compared to support group participants.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Children, Teens, Adults, Urban
Goal: The goal of this program is to reduce childhood obesity and diabetes by increasing access to nutritious food for children and families.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens
Goal: The goal of the CSHP is to improve learning, performance, and health for students and teachers.
Medical Legal Partnerships: Embedding Civil Legal Aid Services in Care for High-Utilizing Patients (Lancaster, PA)
Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Governance, Children, Teens, Adults, Families, Urban
Goal: The goal of the pilot was to assess the impact on health care use of addressing patients’ civil legal problems – the social, financial, or environmental problems that require assistance from lawyers to remedy. The lawyer was embedded in the health care team and present during case management discussions to identify specific civil legal problems and to help the team better understand how to address them. Additionally, this partnership provided civil legal aid services to patients when needed in a community health care system.
Impact: This pilot shows a medical-legal partnership for the super-utilizers of healthcare can lead to efficiencies within the health care system, reduce costs, and improve health outcomes among the most vulnerable patients.
Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Transportation, Urban
Goal: The goal of this project was to support community revitalization, retain the integrity of an historic district, and provide transportation links to private land development projects.
Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Economic Climate
Goal: Memphis Fast Forward is the shared vision and unprecedented action plan to create good jobs, a better-educated workforce, a safer community, a healthier citizenry and efficient government in Memphis and Shelby County.
Impact: Major violent and property crime were reduced by 22.8% and 25.5%. The pool of high-potential teacher candidates increased from 21 to 1,800 in one year. More than 15,000 jobs were created. New capital investment of $4.2 billion was generated. Local governments saved more than $75 million.